These are two things that really began to take effect in Britain in the 1950s. With the ending of rationing and the beginning of consumerism, companies began to take increasing care about their public image. At the same time, Europe was descending into the Cold War with Britain being caught in the middle between America and Soviet Russia. Due to America at first not wanting to hand over its new nuclear toys, Britain was forced to come up with its own nuclear deterrent. The answer became branded as the “V-Force” – three remarkable looking strategic nuclear bombers, deployed to protect our little island from the communist threat.
The fact they they still look amazingly futuristic today gives some idea how they must have seemed when they first appeared in the 1950s. To many people at the time, this was the iconic image of what a bomber looked like:
Now imagine how people must have felt when this came screaming over their heads:
At that time they were painted in bright white too, to reflect some of the heat from a nuclear detonation, with the familiar red white and blue roundels lightened to pink and baby blue to stop roundel shaped holes being burnt into the aircraft.
I think mindset of the men who flew these white behemoths is fascinating. Set on alert, awaiting the order for a counter-strike, knowing they probably didn’t have a great chance of survival, and even if they lived, who knew the horrors that awaited them back home. Sitting in their huge planes, looking out of tiny windows, carrying a nuclear missile so big it had to be strapped to the outside.
Anyway enough of the history lesson, there were some designy things that inspired me to write this. I came across the Flight Global archive which has scans of their old issues throughout the century, including adverts. I’m not sure entirely who they were aimed at, but I love combination of early British modernist graphic design and modernist aircraft design, plus the whole idea of branding a nuclear delivery system designed to kill millions of people. Here’s a few of my favourites:
